1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to display devices for actively displaying images.
2. Description of the Related Technology
Active displays may be made up of pixels that are fully or partly reflective, transmissive, or emissive. Hence a display may generate images with pixels that operate by fully or partially reflecting incident ambient light, pixels that are light-emissive, or transmissive pixels where light is generated from within the display and projected upon the transmissive pixels. Reflective display technologies may include, but are not limited to, liquid crystal, MEMS (such as interferometric modulator), electrophoretic (such as e-ink or e-paper), and other display technologies using reflected ambient light to generate an image. Emissive displays include displays with a backlight to illuminate the active transmissive pixels, such as a liquid crystal or thin film transistor liquid crystal, or displays where the active pixels themselves generate or emit light such as vacuum fluorescent, light emitting diode, organic light emitting diode, or surface-conduction electron-emitter displays.
Displays can include MEMS devices, such as an interferometric modulator. As used herein, the term interferometric modulator or interferometric light modulator refers to a device that selectively absorbs and/or reflects light using the principles of optical interference. In certain embodiments, an interferometric modulator may comprise a pair of conductive plates, one or both of which may be transparent and/or reflective in whole or part and capable of relative motion upon application of an appropriate electrical signal. In a particular embodiment, one plate may comprise a stationary layer deposited on a substrate and the other plate may comprise a metallic membrane separated from the stationary layer by an air gap. As described herein in more detail, the position of one plate in relation to another can change the optical interference of light incident in the interferometric modulator. Such devices have a wide range of applications, and it would be beneficial in the art to utilize and/or modify the characteristics of these types of devices so that their features can be exploited in improving existing products and creating new products that have not yet been developed.